Casting styles
casting time part 2; casting styles generally speaking bigger spells take longer to cast, more complex spells take longer to cast, more powerful spells take longer to cast, and sometimes Because the BM is a dick your spells can take longer to cast. there are 3 main casting styles for free casting classes (warlock, sorceror, druid, wizard, necromancer, ect are free casting) they are Wizard casting: wizard casting is SLOW! oh so SLOW! it is the slowest, but it is also the most precise years of learning kata and formula and magic words give wizards their fearsome reputations, even having heard of a wizard makes his magic more powerful against you his slowness is also counteracted by his staff, get that staff away from that bitch, Having a staff Allows the wizard to cast his first spell each round as a half action, any other spells he casts are calculated as below, his staff will have an effort rating, 1-10, by spending , an extra effort (minor for minor spells, significant for significant spells) the wizard may reduce the casting time in seconds by the effort rating, to the minimum of a standard action. if you are casting without focci then the Casting Time can be calculated as follows: 100- your name stat in seconds NB a round is 5-7n seconds rule Quick and Dirty casting: a wizard's spells casting time can be reduced by half by spending twice the charges, this is cumulative. A half/partial action takes up to 3 seconds a full action takes 7 Casting a spell without a focci is always a minimum of a full action. Example 1: Markus Starkey has left his staff in his car, A vampire is accosting him and he needs to take it out fast! his name stat is 40, so it will take him about a minute to cook up a spell on the fly, starkey doesnt think he can out fight a vampire for that long and decides to instead cast his evocation Quick and Dirty, he spends 8 minor charges on his Grip of the Earth spell (instead of 2) and drops his casting time from 8 rounds (60 seconds) to 2 rounds,(doubling the cost twice from 2 minor to 4 and then again to 8) tiring but worth it, feeling drained and not in the mood for a fight he decides not to return to his car and instead heads strait into his house where his wards can protect him Example2: Markus Starkey, has been caught Without his staff again, He lost it moments ago when disaster struck, sollyell the warlock is advancing upon him with gleeful murder in his eyes and a trusty .45 pistol in his hand, Markus begins incanting an evocation, forming his words and his will into a white hot ball of flame Markus has little reputation his name stat is only 40, it takes him 60 seconds to incant the spell , if he spends his full actions casting this will take him 8 rounds, if he does other things (like dodging , hiding, trying to get his staff back, struggling ect) the precious 7 seconds of each round must be devised between the two actions. starkey doesn't want a face full of bullets and decides to dodge as his full action spending 3 seconds a turn incanting his spell. 20 rounds and a lot of mechanical laughter accompanied by staccato gunfire later he incinerates sollyell with a 2 significant charge chains of plasma spell , a spell that sollyell can't dodge. he resolves to keep a firmer grip on his staff in future. Control casting: this method of casting is the second slowest, it is the most common, and by far the safest casting method and is favoured by druids, sorcerers, ect, by giving some common spell effects (like magic parry, shield spell , blast, ect) a time like "quick, minor, standard, full" and then having the roll a Dice to determine how long each spell takes to cast, each spell will have a primary casting time, listed as an action, with a dice reading after it, for example "Minor D10 +2" when the skill roll is made to cast this spell, the dice listed is rolled this is how long the spell will take to cast , the number rolled represents how many of the listed actions the spell takes to cast. the possible dice rolls are (D5+x)-skill bonus for most minor effects (D10+x)-skill bonus for very complex minor effects and most significant effects (D100+x)-skill bonus for very complex significant effects use a d100, (animating a statue ect) X is the primary cost of the spell in essence, (or how much effort the spell normally takes) the time taken can be reduced on a one for one basis by expending the same type of effort, each expenditure of effort counts as a tandem action, so can only be performed in your turn, but may be done at any time . you can wait a turn, and then use extra effort to shorten the casting time. if so desired. essence is only expended when the spell is completed, you may abandon your casting at any time, example 1 If a significant magical blast, has the time D10+2, if you rolled a 5 on your D10 it would take 7 standard actions if your evocation skill was 40 the spell would take 3 standard actions(about 15 seconds) to cast your spell. you could immediately reduce the time taken by using one or more extra minor efforts if you used one then your spell would now take 2 standard actions (8 seconds), if you used two it would now be 1 standard action (4 seconds) example two: a minor blast with two targets has the time D5+3 getting unlucky and rolling 5, makes the spell take 8 minor actions (24 seconds, though remember you can perform 2 minor actions a turn in combat) the player waits for a turn, spending their two minor actions casting the spell, before their next turn, new opponents join the fray, eager to end the fight quickly, with 6 minor actions of casting time remaining the player expends 4 minor effort, and is able to cast the spell this turn (using both minor actions as casting actions) controlled casting may also be cast "quick and dirty" to do this roll under half skill, the casting time is automatic cut in half, however unlike normal casting, a failed roll still spends your effort. Power casting: not for the feint of heart, Power casting is the 2nd quickest method of casting, though it is the fastest that any player has access too, it represents a supreme lack of control over your magic and is favoured by Warlocks , demons, vampires, ect. each spell has a casting time assigned to it, all spells are 2 minor actions for minor, or 1 standard action for significant effects. major effects if they exist take up 2 full actions. however the cost of the spell is variable, Power casting users must pay the price of their speed by spending far more effort than the other classes, simple effects carry a 1d5, minor effects 1d10, significant effects 1d10, complex effects 3D10 these replace the normal cost of the spell. if you don't have the juice, you cant cast that turn, it takes a quick action to find out if you have the juice or not, (meaning you can try to cast a different spell, ) if you don't have the juice there is one of two things you can do 1 "fuck it try anyway" - using this option you can lower the cost of the spell by 1 for every -6 you take to your skill, you may only do this for a total discount of -3 2 "wait , wait , wait i got this"- by spending the rest of your turn doing nothing else when you next roll for that spell (in the next turn) reduce the cost by 1, this may be done for consecutive rounds equal to your magical stat bonus (almost invariably debt) these 2 options can be mixed and matched at your leisure. if you fail to cast a spell you still spend half the effort invested. power casting is not for the feint of heart.... example 1: sollyell wants to clear a corridor by blasting it with lightning a significant effect that would cost any other caster 2, sollyell has 3 essence worth of favours left in him he rolls his D10 and scores a 4, making the total cost of the spell 4, bad news , he takes -6 off his skill, of 60 allowing him to try to roll under 54, , he wants some essence left just in case so he takes another -6 off his skill dropping it to 48, reducing the cost of his spell to 1 , he uses a standard action to roll and rolls 53 fortunately this is his obsession, he flip flops the roll to 35,and electrifies the floor, if he had failed to cast the spell, he would loose 1 essence dispute the effect not working example 2: Vinnie vestoria wants to use the ethereal body spell to walk through a door and open it from the other side, a significant effect that would cost any other caster 3. he has 8 essence worth of favours, and rolls a 9 on his D10, making the cost 9, he decides to use option two, and concentrates for his entire turn, when his turn comes again he rolls a 7 on his D10, this would make the cost 7, but because of the extra time he spent gathering his thoughts the total cost is now 6. Ritual style; ritual style is used by thaumaturgists and curse spinners it involves first drawing a circle either with spray paint or blood or chalk or wax not particularly suited for combat it takes 1 full round. after the ritual circle has been drawn your ritual will have a prescribed time that can be reduced by rolling successfully , if your combat ritual does not yet have a prescribed time treat it as 50 minor actions ,